Santa Fe College’s East Gainesville Instruction (EGI) will host its annual Community Forum presenting their annual report at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 27, in the Fellowship Hall at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, 2505 NE 8th Ave.
Among the event’s activities, organizers will discuss the educational outreach, parent empowerment, workforce development, faith based partnerships, and technology and literacy outreach programs they have undertaken.
Founded by Santa Fe College President Jackson Sasser in 2002, EGI has been fighting poverty and assisting citizens throughout the county by offering educational outreach for all ages, vocational training, community empowerment events, and access to the internet and today’s necessary technology. One of the reasons for this forum is to display advances made in these areas.
“The commitment has always been to bring the community together and present a report card, a progress report, to show what we’ve been able to do,” said Cole-Smith.
In previous years, attendance at the community forum has included representatives from community-based and faith-based partnerships, however, they rely on program participants, parents, and interested members of the community to provide their personal suggestions for what they should be doing as well as spreading the word about the events and programs they currently offer.
“Feedback actually drives what we do. The reality is to be effective you need to hear from the people,” said Cole-Smith. “It’s not about what we want to do, but what people need from us.”
“Our general goal is to make sure as a college we connect to the community and let the community know of all the educational resources we offer,” said Cole-Smith. “We want to go above and beyond to make sure people are informed, because the only way for social change and economic renewal is through education.”
For more information, please contact Karen Cole-Smith at 352-395-5767.
CONTACT
- Karen Cole-Smith, executive director, 352-395-5767